Chapter Seventeen #2
Despite the fact that most of the market’s customers were dressed in draped fabrics while she and Jack were in shorts and T-shirts, no one stared at them.
There was enough variation in the shoppers and the vendors that their differences were unremarkable: skin colors from blue to coal-black to pink to bronze to metallic silver.
A few shoppers were covered in fur. One woman sported beige-colored wings.
She had on a necklace of bird bones that fell down to her stomach.
Another had talons instead of hands. He clicked them together in rhythm with his footsteps.
Calisa could have wandered through the stalls forever, filling her eyes with all the impossible people and the beautiful oddities on display.
“This is the fifth row,” Jack said. “Which stall did you say?”
“Third stall. Rin.”
It didn’t take them long to find the right one. If they hadn’t seen it, they would have smelled it. It smelled like heaven—and looked it too.
Gorgeous, shiny, decadent baked goods filled the tables of Rin’s stall.
Honey-colored loaves were stacked in a pyramid.
Rolls dotted with fruit filled a basket.
Cookies and crackers were piled high. An elaborate wreath of bread laden with strawberries was the centerpiece, displayed on white linen.
She inhaled the luscious fresh bread smell before noticing the seller behind the table.
Once she spotted him, she couldn’t stop gawking.
The baker, Rin, was a man from the waist up: silvery translucent shirt, blue-black hair, bushy beard, and a wide smile. From the waist down, he was a horse.
“You’re a centaur,” Calisa blurted out.
Jack elbowed her.
“Sorry.” She winced at herself. “First time at the Night Market.”
Rin’s face lit up. “Ahh, then you must try the vella-berry bread. It is delectable and for the low, low price of only fifteen lercats.”
“Actually, we aren’t here to buy,” Jack said.
“To sell, then?”
Calisa frowned at him. “And fifteen lercats is three times what Auntie Zee paid. She specifically said your prices were reasonable.”
Now it was Rin who winced. “You’re from Auntie Zee?”
“She’s my great-aunt,” Calisa said. “Literally. Not just because everyone calls her Auntie. She’s my mom’s mom’s sister. I’m helping out at the bed-and-breakfast this summer.”
“Ah. You should have said that to begin with. My prices are always reasonable…for Auntie Zee.” He spread his arms wide to encompass all the baked goods and pastries before him. His tail flicked away a fly.
Jack sounded outraged. “You were trying to cheat us before?”
“Not cheat,” Rin protested. “Just offering an introductory price. But now that I know you’re from Auntie Zee…Does she want her usual order, or something special?”
Jack glanced at Calisa—this was her idea, his look said, and he was letting her take the lead.
She appreciated that. Ethan would have jumped in to run the conversation, but Jack didn’t seem to need to feed his ego by speaking first and loudest. He trusts me.
Even though he disagreed with her, even though he hadn’t wanted to come and especially hadn’t wanted her to come, he still trusted her.
“We were hoping that she’d placed an order herself,” Calisa said. “Have you seen her recently? Like, yesterday?”
Rin shook his head, and his mane-like hair rippled. “She hasn’t been to my stall in weeks.” He looked from Calisa to Jack and back. “Why do you ask? Has something happened?”
“Probably not,” Calisa said. “But she didn’t come home when she said she would.”
“We’re concerned,” Jack said. “She’s older, and…we’re just concerned. It’s not like her to be late to return, and we want to make sure she’s okay.”
“Ah, merely late to return? You have nothing to worry about,” Rin said. “This is Auntie Zee! She’ll be fine. You said she was supposed to return yesterday?”
Calisa nodded. “She was supposed to be back by dinnertime.”
“Perhaps she had to wait for an order to be ready and elected to spend the night. Perhaps her hosts invited her to stay and dine with them, and it grew too late to return. Travel between realms can be somewhat unpredictable. She could have encountered any one of numerous delays.”
It was possible she’d just lingered longer than she’d meant to. In fact, it was likely. But then someone needed to tell her to hurry back. Sure, Auntie Zee was tired, but the inn still needed her. “You’re sure she didn’t come here? Could she have gone to a different vendor?”
“If she didn’t visit me, then she didn’t come to the Night Market,” Rin said with certainty.
“But I’ll ask around if anyone has seen her.
We have many travelers from many realms who come through our stalls.
Someone may have news. Come back in a few days if she doesn’t return, and I’ll share what I’ve heard. ”
That was at least something. “Thank you,” Calisa said.
“We can discuss payment when you visit again,” Rin said.
“And if you find her in the meantime, no charge.” He smiled broadly, and she noticed that his teeth were fat, wide, and even, like a horse’s teeth.
“Truly, I wouldn’t worry. Auntie Zee is a force of nature.
She’ll show up when she’s good and ready.
There is nothing in the realms that she can’t handle.
But if you’re impatient, you could check with her suppliers in other realms.”
The logbook did list out other realms where Auntie Zee had purchased supplies. The Night Market was the most likely one, with Rin her most common supplier, but she could have gone to any one of a dozen of them. We could check them all….
It would mean opening more doors.
A lot more doors.
Calisa wasn’t going to admit it out loud to Jack, but she very much liked that idea.